Augmented reality recommendations

ABSTRACT

Various embodiments enable a computing device to perform tasks such as processing an image to recognize text or an object in an image to identify a particular product or related products associated with the text or object. In response to recognizing the text or the object as being associated with a product available for purchase from an electronic marketplace, one or more advertisements or product listings associated with the product can be displayed to the user. Accordingly, additional information for the associated product can be displayed, enabling the user to learn more about and purchase the product from the electronic marketplace through the portable computing device.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of allowed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/480,038, filed Apr. 5, 2017, titled “AUGMENTED REALITYRECOMMENDATIONS”, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/863,325, filed Sep. 23, 2015 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,646,335issued May 9, 2017), titled “AUGMENTED REALITY RECOMMENDATIONS”, whichis a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/893,235, filedMay 13, 2013 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,183,583 issued Nov. 10, 2015), all ofwhich the full disclosure of these applications are incorporated hereinby references for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

As people are increasingly utilizing a variety of computing devices,including portable devices such as tablet computers and smart phones, itcan be advantageous to adapt the ways in which people interact withthese devices. Users are accustomed to manually inputting phone numbersto make a phone call, manually typing a web address into a web browserto view a web page, manually typing desired terms for a search, and thelike. These tasks are often tedious and time consuming. Various methodsto save users time have been offered on various devices such asassigning a phone number to a favorites list, bookmarking a Web address,creating a wish list associated with an electronic marketplace.Augmented reality (AR), or the live view of a physical, real-worldenvironment augmented by computer-generated sensory input, applicationshave become more popular recently with adoption of smartphones and otherportable computing devices. Through computer vision algorithms, some ofthese AR applications are able to provide users with information relatedto an environment in both a search and gaming context, thus, enablingusers to interact with aspects of the environment that were previouslyunavailable. As technology evolves and as the features and servicesoffered on portable computing devices evolve and expand, the waysshortcuts and other time saving methods are provided to users ischanging.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate example views of a user interface of acomputing device in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate example views of a user interface of acomputing device in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process that can be used in accordancewith at least one embodiment;

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate an example situation showing a user obtaininginformation computing device that can be used to implement aspects ofvarious embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates another example process that can be used inaccordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates system diagram that can be used in accordance with atleast one embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example system for providing overlays based on adetected image in a live field of view of a camera, in accordance withat least one embodiment;

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate an example computing device that can be usedto implement aspects of various embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates example components that can be used with a devicesuch as that illustrated in FIGS. 8A and 8B;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example environment in which various embodimentscan be implemented; and

FIG. 11 illustrates another environment in which various embodiments canbe implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure may overcome one or more of the foregoing or otherdeficiencies experienced in conventional approaches to providing userswith information via a computing device. In particular, variousembodiments enable a device, such as a portable computing device, toperform tasks such as processing an acquired image to recognize text oran object in the image to identify a particular product (or relatedproducts) or service associated with the text or object. Uponidentifying a particular product or related products, relatedinformation can be provided to a user that can enable the user toperform tasks such as purchasing the product(s) from an electronicmarketplace.

In at least one embodiment, image information associated with a “live”field of view of a camera can be displayed as part of an augmentedreality (AR) application executing on a portable computing device. Theimage information is analyzed to attempt to recognize text or an objectin the live field of view and, in response to recognizing the text orthe object as being associated with a product available for purchasefrom an electronic marketplace, one or more advertisements or productlistings associated with the product can be determined and displayed toa user over a portion of the live field of view, at least as displayedon a display screen of the computing device. Upon receiving, from theuser, a touch (or other) selection to an advertisement or productlisting, additional information for the associated product can bedisplayed, enabling the user to learn more about and/or purchase theproduct from the electronic marketplace through the portable computingdevice, among other such options. Additionally, the product results canbe presented to the user(s) in a graphical overlay or a fixed-positionproduct listing as part of the AR application, presented in apersonalized webpage for a user's account with an electronicmarketplace, or presented in an email communicating identified productsand/or their related advertisements or products. As used herein, twoproducts can be considered related when they both belong to the sameclass of products, are competing products, are the same type of productbut made by different companies (different brand), contain overlappingkeywords, are two products that are complimentary to each other, and thelike.

In one example, an AR application may not be able to accurately identifytext or an object in an acquired image (or video). There may, forexample, be only a portion of the text or object within the camera'sview or some optical aberration could be making it difficult for anoptical character recognizer (OCR) or image matching algorithm todetermine. Accordingly, upon analyzing the text or object, confidencevalues for particular text characters or for an object are determined orotherwise obtained. In one example, if confidence scores for the text orthe product are all below a threshold score, advertisements or listingsfor products associated with the highest confidence values among theproducts can be displayed to the user. In this way, a lack ofrecognition precision or accuracy can be subtly shielded by presentingpotentially related products, or even the correct product, to the userinstead of returning an error message, for example.

In at least one embodiment, upon acquiring image information, the imageinformation can be analyzed to recognize the text contained therein fortext items, such as a phone number, a physical address, a URL, or abusiness name. In response to recognizing the text as a text item, arecognition or matching system can lookup information for the text item,such as by analyzing a phone book or address database, to determine abusiness or service corresponding to a respective phone number, address,URL, business name, or service type. Accordingly, results for thedesired business or service, as well as potentially one or more similarbusinesses or services, related to the recognized text item can bedisplayed to a user on the computing device for enabling the user toobtain additional information for a respective business or service. Inone example, these results can be displayed to the user asadvertisements in an advertisement section of the AR application. Inanother example, if location information is used to determine a locationof the computing device when the search is performed, the one or moresimilar businesses could be local businesses or services related to thephone number, address, URL, or business name.

Further, if the user is associated with account for an electronicmarketplace while using the AR application, the identified recognizedresults can be aggregated with the user's account information. Theaggregation of this information can benefit the larger e-commerce systemas well as the recognition precision for the user's AR application. Forexample, the AR application can benefit from integrating the user's pastaccount history from the electronic marketplace, which can potentiallyimprove text and/or object recognition accuracy by knowing the user'sinterests and habits, prioritizing those interests and habits for thatuser, and crosschecking recognition results against those interests andassociated habits. For example, if a user has an item in a virtualshopping cart of the electronic marketplace, then goes to a store anduses the AR application to recognize text or an object that relates toan item therein, the AR application can determine with a fairly highconfidence score that the user is now looking at the same item in thestore. In such an example, upon knowing thins information, theelectronic marketplace could provide the user with a discount or otherincentive to purchase the product from the electronic marketplaceinstead of the store.

Various other functions and advantages are described and suggested belowas may be provided in accordance with the various embodiments.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate an example situation showing a recognitioninterface of an augmented reality (AR) application displaying a liveimage of an advertisement on a display element 102 in accordance with atleast one embodiment. In this example, a user could point an imagingelement, such as a camera, of the computing device 100 at text 104 in amagazine, for example, to perform a visual search for obtaining productdetails for 4-port routers, information about a particular brand, orinformation for purchasing a router through an electronic marketplace.In this example, FIG. 1A shows a computing device 100 capturing the text104 “4-port router” to perform a visual search thereof. In oneembodiment, upon obtaining an image or image information, one or moreportions of the same having properties that indicate the presence oftext can be identified. An application executing on the computing devicecan automatically run or send the image information to a remote locationto run an optical character recognition (OCR) algorithm to recognizetext 104 of the “4-port router” advertisement. The OCR algorithm may, invarious embodiments, include a machine vision algorithm and other imagepreprocessing algorithms making use of various techniques. Further, itshould be understood that the methods and techniques discussed hereinare not limited to text recognition applications. For example, otherimage matching, similarity search, and the like algorithms can be usedto recognize objects in addition to recognizing text.

In response to recognizing “4-port router” and its relationship to aproduct available for purchase from the electronic marketplace, searchresults associated with the text can be displayed to the user of thecomputing device 100. In this example, “4-port router” refers to a classof devices for which there are many brands and types with differentfeatures. Accordingly, instead of displaying a single specific productresult, results for various 4-port routers of different brands andfeatures can be displayed to the user. FIG. 1B shows a view thecomputing device 100 with an advertisement, virtual shelf, or productpreview bar 106 that includes product results for four different 4-portrouters. In this example, various 4-port routers are displayed to theuser as a result of recognizing text associated with a broad category,as opposed to a single specific model 4-port router of a specific brand.

In order to determine which products to display to the user, the text104 for “4-port router” could be submitted to an ad network and the adspace in the product preview bar 106 can be provided to the highestbidders of the keyword “router” or “port” or a combination of the two asa way to monetize this ad space, for example. In another example, eachof the products in the product preview bar 106 could be associated withproducts available for purchase from the electronic marketplace whereclicking on a respective product would navigate the user, via thecomputing device 100, to a product purchasing page for the user topurchase a respective router. The product preview bar 106, in variousexamples, can display items that the user has recently recognized inprevious visual searches, viewed in the electronic marketplace, listedin a wish list or an electronic shopping cart. Further, the productpreview bar 106 can display items associated keywords from a user'sbrowser or purchase history, display items as suggested by one or morealgorithms based at least in part on words being recognized in theimage, and the like. Additionally, items from local stores or marketsgeographically close to the user could also be provided for display onthe product preview bar 106, for example. These local stores or marketscould also bid on certain keywords or pay for their listing to appearbefore other listings for a particular product or service class.

In at least one embodiment, the text or object does not need to beaccurately recognized in order to provide product results for display.Accordingly, product results for products from the electronicmarketplace can be displayed on the product preview bar 106 when a wordis only partially recognized (or recognized with an associated lowconfidence score). Besides providing the user with product results thatare potentially relevant, displaying partially recognized results cansubtly shield imperfections in the recognition process. In thisinstance, instead of being frustrated with a lack of visual searchresults, a user could scroll through the product results on the productpreview bar 106. In one instance, the AR application may actuallyrecognize the text or object that the user desires, but may onlyrecognize part of the text or object, due to glare or blur, for example,or recognize the text or object with an associated low confidence score.Accordingly, as a result of the low confidence score, the productcorresponding to the partially recognized text or object could bedisplayed in the product preview bar 106 where the user could see andselect the desired product, in this instance.

For example, if the user is attempting to have the AR applicationrecognize the word “skateboard,” but for whatever reason the applicationcan only recognizes “skate,” the product results in the product previewbar 106 could include roller skates, ice skates, skateboards, and thelike. In this example, however, a skateboard does appear in the productpreview bar 106 and the user could use this result to focus their searchon skateboards. In another example, conditions for image capture may beless than ideal resulting in all the confidence scores for each objector group of text returned by the recognition engine to be below aconfidence score threshold. In this example, the AR application couldreturn a number of products with the highest confidence scores, eventhough they are below the confidence threshold. Such a situation wouldbe indicative of a recognition problem, as opposed to a clear confidencescore winner with multiple confidence score results below the thresholdscore which would be characteristic of an ideal match.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate another example of a recognition interfacefor an AR application displaying a live image of an advertisement on adisplay element 202 in accordance with at least one embodiment. In thisexample, the user has pointed the imaging element of the computingdevice 200 computing device at text 204 of an advertisement to perform avisual search for obtaining product details or purchasing informationfor a 4-port router from Brand A. In this example, FIG. 2A shows thecomputing device 200 capturing the text “Brand A 4-port router” toperform a visual search thereof as described above. This example issimilar to FIGS. 1A-1B except, in this instance, the visual search isfor a specific product, namely Brand A's 4-port router. In this example,upon recognizing the text 204 and identifying that the text 204 isassociated with a specific product, not just a class of products asdescribed above, product information for the specific product isdisplayed to the user. FIG. 2B illustrates an example of such productinformation displayed in product information bar 206 that could bepresented to the user, in one example. In this example, the productinformation bar 206 may include the full name of the product, the priceof the product, product reviews, and a link to purchase the product or avirtual button to add the product to a wish list of virtual shoppingcart.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process 300 for providing users withproduct information with an augmented reality application on a computingdevice, in accordance with various embodiments. It should be understoodthat, for any process discussed herein, there can be additional, fewer,or alternative steps performed in similar or alternative orders, or inparallel, within the scope of the various embodiments unless otherwisestated.

In this example, an image or image information (e.g., a video stream) ina live field of view is captured 302. In various embodiments, the imageor image information is obtained from a camera application of theportable computing device. In one instance, hovering the device over anobject facing the camera will cause the camera to automatically captureat least one image or record a sequence of images. In another instance,the camera requires input from a user in order to capture the image,such as by the user selecting an icon on a touch screen, for example.The imaging sensor can also be in a continuous image capturing mode.This can, however, be energy intensive, so a user may select variousoptions or circumstances in which to have the device continually run inan image capturing and processing mode or when to have it disabled. Forexample, a setting could be selected where the continuous capturing andprocessing mode is automatically turned off when the battery is drainedto a particular level.

Accordingly, the image is analyzed or processed 304 to recognize anytext or object contained therein. In response to recognizing 306 thetext or the object as being associated with a product available forpurchase from an electronic marketplace, one or more advertisements orproduct listings associated with the product (or a related product) canbe displayed 308 over a portion of the live field of view. The productscan, in one example, be displayed to the user through graphical overlayassociated with an augmented reality (AR) application on the computingdevice or through a fixed-position product listing or a popup windowthat could also be associated with the AR application. In one example,recognizing the text or object includes determining a confidence scorefor the text or object in the image as being a match to a respectiveproduct. Accordingly, the text or object are considered a match if theconfidence score is above a threshold confidence score and a productwith such a confidence score will be chosen for display to the user.Alternatively, in the instance where there are no confidence scoresabove the threshold score, a determined number of products with thehighest associated matching confidence scores can be displayed to theuser. The confidence scores could be based on different factors or adifferent combination of the same factors.

Upon receiving, from a user, a selection 310 of an advertisement for aproduct, additional information for the product is displayed 312,enabling 314 the user to learn more about and purchase the product fromthe electronic marketplace. In one example, the user can purchase theproduct though the AR application from the computing device or the usercould save the product, such as by adding it to a wish list, andpurchasing it at another time through another computing device. Variousother approaches can be used as well as discussed or suggested elsewhereherein. Additionally, it should be understood that the methods andtechniques discussed herein are not limited to text recognitionapplications. For example, other image matching, similarity search, andthe like algorithms can be used to recognize objects in addition torecognizing text. Further, although FIGS. 1-3 discuss the recognition ofrelated products, listings or advertisements for one or more servicersor businesses associated with a recognized product could also bedisplayed to the user within the scope of various embodiments.

As discussed elsewhere herein, the product results can also be providedto users through multiple means other than directly through the ARapplication. For example, a user having an account with an electronicmarketplace linked to the AR application could be presented withproducts related to past visual searches when the user navigates to awebpage associated with the electronic marketplace. The products couldcome in the form of suggestions or recently viewed items, but also asfixed-position advertisements or product listings. Further, emailadvertising campaigns could also be pushed to users with information forrelated search performed through the AR application. Various otherapproaches and product information delivery means can be used as well asdiscussed or suggested elsewhere herein.

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate an example situation of a user using a computingdevice 400 to reverse look up information for a business and/or relatedbusinesses using a phone number, URL, or name of the business, inaccordance with various embodiments. In at least one embodiment, arecognized phone number, URL, or business name can be checked against adatabase to reverse look up information for the business associated withthe recognized phone number, URL, or business name. Accordingly, withthe information for the business, more information can be provided touser of that business and, additionally, information for relatedbusinesses either in the advertisement section of the AR application oras search results.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example situation 400 in which a user isattempting to recognize text 404 on a window of a business, which inthis example is a dry cleaner, Pam's Laundry. Although a smart phone isshown, it should be understood that various other types of electronic orcomputing devices that are capable of determining and processing inputcan be used in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein.These devices can include, for example, tablet computers, notebookcomputers, desktop computers, personal data assistants, electronic bookreaders, video gaming controllers, and portable media players, amongothers.

In this example, the user is walking down the street to drop of a fewitems for dry cleaning, but when they arrive, Pam's Laundry is closed.In accordance with various embodiments, instead of manually typing thename of the business into a search engine of device's web browser toobtain additional information for Pam's Laundry, such as hours ofoperation, or information for other dry cleaners, the user could pointthe camera of the computing device 400 at either the text associatedwith a phone number, business name, or business URL to recognize andsubsequently reverse lookup information for the business stored in aphone book or address book database or through a web search using thebusiness's name.

In this example, the user has pointed the camera of computing device 400at text 404 for the business's phone number and a system incommunication with the AR application has reverse looked-up the businessassociated with the phone number. Accordingly, FIG. 4B shows the phonenumber displayed on the display 402 of the computing device withinformation for Pam's Laundry displayed in informational bar 406. Inthis example, upon determining a business associated with the phonenumber, information for the business (Pam's Laundry) can be retrieved byperforming a web search or by searching a map, business listing, orother database. In this example, the information for Pam's Laundrydisplayed on informational bar 406 includes the name of the business,the current status of the business that indicates that it is currentlyclosed, and a link for the user to view results for businesses similarto Pam's Laundry in the user's vicinity. Other information such as theaddress, hours of operation, customer reviews, product or serviceprices, and the like could also be displayed in informational bar 406.

Accordingly, in this example, the user has clicked on the link to viewother businesses similar to Pam's Laundry near the user. FIG. 4C showsan example map view 408 that could be presented to the user uponclicking the link to view other businesses similar to Pam's Laundry inthe user's vicinity. In this example, the user is presented with thelocation of businesses similar to Pam's Laundry on a map relative totheir current location, thus, enabling the user to quickly identify thenext closest open dry cleaner so that they can drop off their drycleaning. Accordingly, the user's default dry cleaner was closed;however, the user was able to use the AR application on their computingdevice 400 to identify the next closest open dry cleaner withoutinputting or manually searching for the alternative dry cleanerthemselves.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process 500 for providing users withadditional information using an imagining sensor of a computing devicein accordance with various embodiments. In this example, upon obtainingimage information 502 containing text, the image information is analyzed504 to recognize the text. In response to recognizing the text as aphone number, address, URL, or business name, a phonebook/addressdatabase is analyzed 506 to determine a business or servicecorresponding to the phone number, address, URL, business name, orservice. Accordingly, results for the desired business, service, and/orone or more similar businesses or services related to the recognizedtext are displayed 508 to a user on the computing device to enable theuser 510 to obtain additional information for a respective business orservice. In one example, these results can be displayed to the user asadvertisements in an advertisement section of the AR application.Various other approaches can be used as well as discussed or suggestedelsewhere herein.

In at least one embodiment, if a user utilizing an augmented realityapplication, in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein, ontheir computing device has an account with an electronic marketplace,the AR application can be linked to the larger e-commerce system for anelectronic marketplace to provide mutual benefits to both the ARapplication and the user's account with the electronic marketplace. FIG.6 illustrates an example block diagram 600 for providing productinformation through multiple channels to users.

In this example, product information 606 can be presented to users of anAR application as an overlay, a popup window, a fixed-positionadvertisement, and the like. Further, this product information 606 canbe delivered to users via email, which could include product promotionsand suggestions related to the user's interests, and also via apersonalized webpage associated with a user's account with theelectronic marketplace. Multiple data sources can be used to ensure thatthe product information 606 provided to users is relevant to theparticular user the information is provided to. For example, these datasources can include information specific to the user, such as recognizedkeywords from the AR system 602, information associated with a user'selectronic marketplace account 604, and a user's current location 612.Further, these data sources can include information to crosscheck datacoming in from the AR system 602, the user's electronic marketplaceaccount 604, and location 612, such as product keywords 610, data froman advertisement system 608, a business directory 614, a product imagesinventory 616, and the like.

In this example, information from a user's electronic marketplaceaccount 604 may include past product search terms from manual searches,browsing history, pervious purchases, items in a wish list, and thelike. Data from the AR system 602 may include previous visual searches,items the user has clicked on that are related to a particular search,and items purchased through the AR application. The location 612includes location data from a source such as a global position system(GPS), map application data, WIFI triangulation, IP address lookup, andthe like. For example, a user is probably not interested in results forbusinesses that are across the country. The business directory 614 caninclude information complied for local, regional, national, orinternational businesses. This information may include business names,addresses, phone numbers, hours or operation, customer reviews, industryand product/service information, and the like. Product images inventory616 may include images for products available for purchase through theelectronic marketplace. In one example, histogram descriptors forproducts are stored in the product images inventory 616 for imagematching. For example, these descriptors can be compared againstincoming visual product searches from, for example, the AR applicationto determine a similarity between descriptors for identifying a productin the incoming image. Product keywords 610 can be used to crosscheckagainst and verify whether text recognized in a visual search matchesone or more product keywords stored for a respective product in theproduct keyword data store 610. Further, advertisement information fromthe advertisement system 608 is used as an input for displayinginformation when providing the user with an advertisement.

Each of these data sources can be used to determine and verify a productto present to the user, determine the product information 606 associatedwith the product, and deliver product information 606 that isappropriate given the user's preferences, tastes, habits, and currentlocation or context. Accordingly, the product information 606 can bedisplayed to the user as an overlay, a popup window, or a fixed-positionadvertisement in the AR application or via email, which could includeproduct promotions and suggestions, and also via a personalized webpageassociated with a user's account with the electronic marketplace.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example system for providing augmented realityoverlays based on a detected image in a live field of view of a camera,in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, a portablecomputing device 700 is in communication with a server 702. The portablecomputing can device can be a mobile phone or any computing device thatcan be operated by a user. The server can be any type of server such asan application server, a web server, etc.

The portable computing device in this example includes a camera 704, aninterface 706 (e.g., a display element) that displays the field of viewof the camera, and a processing component 708. The camera can include alens and an image sensor that converts an optical image into anelectrical signal. The portable computing device can be aimed indifferent directions and the interface can display an image 710 of thecurrent/active field of view being captured by the camera. It should benoted that the image is not a snapshot of the current/active field ofview being captured by the camera; rather, the image is the current (orlive) rendering of what the camera is being pointed at.

The processing component processes the image in the active field of viewof the camera to detect text in the image. For example, the processingcomponent can implement algorithms that detect and recognize thelocation of text in the image, and the region of the image that includesthe text can be cropped to create a region of cropped text. The regionof cropped text can be binarized. Thereafter, the region of binarizedtext is communicated to the server. Alternatively, in accordance with anembodiment, a grey scale image, color image or any other image (croppedor otherwise not cropped) can be communicated to the server (or remainon the portable computing device) for further processing. Additionally,it should be understood that instead of communicating the binarized textto the server, at least a portion or all of the further processing couldalso be done on the portable computing device 700.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate front and back views, respectively, of anexample computing device 800 that can be used in accordance with variousembodiments. Although a portable computing device (e.g., a smartphone,an electronic book reader, or tablet computer) is shown, it should beunderstood that any device capable of receiving and processing input canbe used in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein. Thedevices can include, for example, desktop computers, notebook computers,electronic book readers, personal data assistants, cellular phones,video gaming consoles or controllers, television set top boxes, andportable media players, among others.

In this example, the computing device 800 has a display screen 802(e.g., an LCD element) operable to display information or image contentto one or more users or viewers of the device. The display screen ofsome embodiments displays information to the viewers facing the displayscreen (e.g., on the same side of the computing device as the displayscreen). The computing device in this example can include one or moreimaging elements, in this example including two image capture elements804 on the front of the device and at least one image capture element810 on the back of the device. It should be understood, however, thatimage capture elements could also, or alternatively, be placed on thesides or corners of the device, and that there can be any appropriatenumber of capture elements of similar or different types. Each imagecapture element 804 and 810 may be, for example, a camera, acharge-coupled device (CCD), a motion detection sensor or an infraredsensor, or other image capturing technology.

As discussed, the device can use the images (e.g., still or video)captured from the imaging elements 804 and 810 to generate athree-dimensional simulation of the surrounding environment (e.g., avirtual reality of the surrounding environment for display on thedisplay element of the device). Further, the device can utilize outputsfrom at least one of the image capture elements 804 and 810 to assist indetermining the location and/or orientation of a user and in recognizingnearby persons, objects, or locations. For example, if the user isholding the device, the captured image information can be analyzed(e.g., using mapping information about a particular area) to determinethe approximate location and/or orientation of the user. The capturedimage information may also be analyzed to recognize nearby persons,objects, or locations (e.g., by matching parameters or elements from themapping information).

The computing device can also include at least one microphone or otheraudio capture elements capable of capturing audio data, such as wordsspoken by a user of the device, music being hummed by a person near thedevice, or audio being generated by a nearby speaker or other suchcomponent, although audio elements are not required in at least somedevices. In this example there are three microphones, one microphone 808on the front side, one microphone 812 on the back, and one microphone806 on or near a top or side of the device. In some devices there may beonly one microphone, while in other devices there might be at least onemicrophone on each side and/or corner of the device, or in otherappropriate locations.

The device 800 in this example also includes one or more orientation- orposition-determining elements 818 operable to provide information suchas a position, direction, motion, or orientation of the device. Theseelements can include, for example, accelerometers, inertial sensors,electronic gyroscopes, and electronic compasses.

The example device also includes at least one communication mechanism814, such as may include at least one wired or wireless componentoperable to communicate with one or more electronic devices. The devicealso includes a power system 816, such as may include a battery operableto be recharged through conventional plug-in approaches, or throughother approaches such as capacitive charging through proximity with apower mat or other such device. Various other elements and/orcombinations are possible as well within the scope of variousembodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates a set of basic components of an electronic computingdevice 900 such as the device 800 described with respect to FIG. 8. Inthis example, the device includes at least one processing unit 902 forexecuting instructions that can be stored in a memory device or element904. As would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, thedevice can include many types of memory, data storage, orcomputer-readable media, such as a first data storage for programinstructions for execution by the processing unit(s) 902, the same orseparate storage can be used for images or data, a removable memory canbe available for sharing information with other devices, and any numberof communication approaches can be available for sharing with otherdevices.

The device typically will include some type of display element 906, suchas a touch screen, electronic ink (e-ink), organic light emitting diode(OLED) or liquid crystal display (LCD), although devices such asportable media players might convey information via other means, such asthrough audio speakers.

As discussed, the device in many embodiments will include at least oneimaging element 908, such as one or more cameras that are able tocapture images of the surrounding environment and that are able to imagea user, people, or objects in the vicinity of the device. The imagecapture element can include any appropriate technology, such as a CCDimage capture element having a sufficient resolution, focal range, andviewable area to capture an image of the user when the user is operatingthe device. Methods for capturing images using a camera element with acomputing device are well known in the art and will not be discussedherein in detail. It should be understood that image capture can beperformed using a single image, multiple images, periodic imaging,continuous image capturing, image streaming, etc. Further, a device caninclude the ability to start and/or stop image capture, such as whenreceiving a command from a user, application, or other device.

The example computing device 900 also includes at least one orientationdetermining element 910 able to determine and/or detect orientationand/or movement of the device. Such an element can include, for example,an accelerometer or gyroscope operable to detect movement (e.g.,rotational movement, angular displacement, tilt, position, orientation,motion along a non-linear path, etc.) of the device 900. An orientationdetermining element can also include an electronic or digital compass,which can indicate a direction (e.g., north or south) in which thedevice is determined to be pointing (e.g., with respect to a primaryaxis or other such aspect).

As discussed, the device in many embodiments will include at least apositioning element 912 for determining a location of the device (or theuser of the device). A positioning element can include or comprise a GPSor similar location-determining elements operable to determine relativecoordinates for a position of the device. As mentioned above,positioning elements may include wireless access points, base stations,etc. that may either broadcast location information or enabletriangulation of signals to determine the location of the device. Otherpositioning elements may include QR codes, barcodes, RFID tags, NFCtags, etc. that enable the device to detect and receive locationinformation or identifiers that enable the device to obtain the locationinformation (e.g., by mapping the identifiers to a correspondinglocation). Various embodiments can include one or more such elements inany appropriate combination.

As mentioned above, some embodiments use the element(s) to track thelocation of a device. Upon determining an initial position of a device(e.g., using GPS), the device of some embodiments may keep track of thelocation of the device by using the element(s), or in some instances, byusing the orientation determining element(s) as mentioned above, or acombination thereof. As should be understood, the algorithms ormechanisms used for determining a position and/or orientation can dependat least in part upon the selection of elements available to the device.

The example device also includes one or more wireless components 914operable to communicate with one or more electronic devices within acommunication range of the particular wireless channel. The wirelesschannel can be any appropriate channel used to enable devices tocommunicate wirelessly, such as Bluetooth, cellular, NFC, or Wi-Fichannels. It should be understood that the device can have one or moreconventional wired communications connections as known in the art.

The device also includes a power system 916, such as may include abattery operable to be recharged through conventional plug-inapproaches, or through other approaches such as capacitive chargingthrough proximity with a power mat or other such device. Various otherelements and/or combinations are possible as well within the scope ofvarious embodiments.

In some embodiments the device can include at least one additional inputdevice 918 able to receive conventional input from a user. Thisconventional input can include, for example, a push button, touch pad,touch screen, wheel, joystick, keyboard, mouse, keypad, or any othersuch device or element whereby a user can input a command to the device.These I/O devices could even be connected by a wireless infrared orBluetooth or other link as well in some embodiments. Some devices alsocan include a microphone or other audio capture element that acceptsvoice or other audio commands. For example, a device might not includeany buttons at all, but might be controlled only through a combinationof visual and audio commands, such that a user can control the devicewithout having to be in contact with the device.

FIG. 10 is an example environment 1000 in which a user can utilize acomputing device to recognize text, in accordance with variousembodiments. It should be understood that the example system is ageneral overview of basic components, and that there can be manyadditional and/or alternative components utilized as known or used inthe art for recognizing text in multiple images. In this example, a useris able to utilize a client device 1002, such as a personal computer,tablet computer, smart phone, and the like, to access an OpticalCharacter Recognition system or service 1006 over at least oneappropriate network 1004, such as a cellular network, the Internet, oranother such network for communicating digital information. The clientdevice 1002 can capture one or more images (or video) of text and sendthe images to the Optical Character Recognition system or service 1006over the at least one appropriate network 1004. The Optical CharacterRecognition system 1006 includes an image-processing module 1008 thatcan apply different operators or techniques to pre-process the imagesbefore submitting the images to one or more optical characterrecognition modules 1010. Examples of the operators include aLaplacian-of-Gaussian filter, thresholding filters, and so forth, whichenhance or mitigate different characteristics of the images. Examples ofthese characteristics include intensity, blurriness, and so forth. Afterpre-processing, the one or more recognition engines of the opticalcharacter recognition module 1010 concurrently recognizes text from theimage to produce multiple recognized text outputs. In at least oneembodiment, a processor can analyze the recognized text using a database1012 of words in order to improve the recognition. The database 1012includes a set of words which the processor can search for matchescorresponding to words present in the recognized text. At least aportion of these tasks can be performed on a portable computing deviceor by using at least one resource available across a network as well. Inat least some embodiments, an OCR application will be installed on theclient device 1002, such that much of the processing, analyzing, orother such aspects can be executed on the client device. Variousprocessing steps can be performed by the client device 1002, by theOptical Character Recognition system 1006, or a combination thereof.Therefore, it should be understood that the components and capabilitiesof the Optical Character Recognition system 1006 could wholly or partlyreside on the client device 1002.

As discussed, different approaches can be implemented in variousenvironments in accordance with the described embodiments. For example,FIG. 11 illustrates an example of an environment 1100 for implementingaspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will be appreciated,although a Web-based environment is used for purposes of explanation,different environments may be used, as appropriate, to implement variousembodiments. The system includes an electronic client device 1102, whichcan include any appropriate device operable to send and receiverequests, messages or information over an appropriate network 1104 andconvey information back to a user of the device. Examples of such clientdevices include personal computers, cell phones, handheld messagingdevices, laptop computers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants,electronic book readers and the like. The network can include anyappropriate network, including an intranet, the Internet, a cellularnetwork, a local area network or any other such network or combinationthereof. The network could be a “push” network, a “pull” network, or acombination thereof. In a “push” network, one or more of the serverspush out data to the client device. In a “pull” network, one or more ofthe servers send data to the client device upon request for the data bythe client device. Components used for such a system can depend at leastin part upon the type of network and/or environment selected. Protocolsand components for communicating via such a network are well known andwill not be discussed herein in detail. Communication over the networkcan be enabled via wired or wireless connections and combinationsthereof. In this example, the network includes the Internet, as theenvironment includes a Web server 1106 for receiving requests andserving content in response thereto, although for other networks, analternative device serving a similar purpose could be used, as would beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server1108 and a data store 1110. It should be understood that there can beseveral application servers, layers or other elements, processes orcomponents, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which caninteract to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriatedata store. As used herein, the term “data store” refers to any deviceor combination of devices capable of storing, accessing and retrievingdata, which may include any combination and number of data servers,databases, data storage devices and data storage media, in any standard,distributed or clustered environment. The application server 1108 caninclude any appropriate hardware and software for integrating with thedata store 1110 as needed to execute aspects of one or more applicationsfor the client device and handling a majority of the data access andbusiness logic for an application. The application server providesaccess control services in cooperation with the data store and is ableto generate content such as text, graphics, audio and/or video to betransferred to the user, which may be served to the user by the Webserver 1106 in the form of HTML, XML or another appropriate structuredlanguage in this example. The handling of all requests and responses, aswell as the delivery of content between the client device 1102 and theapplication server 1108, can be handled by the Web server 1106. Itshould be understood that the Web and application servers are notrequired and are merely example components, as structured code discussedherein can be executed on any appropriate device or host machine asdiscussed elsewhere herein.

The data store 1110 can include several separate data tables, databasesor other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data relating toa particular aspect. For example, the data store illustrated includesmechanisms for storing content (e.g., production data) 1112 and userinformation 1116, which can be used to serve content for the productionside. The data store is also shown to include a mechanism for storinglog or session data 1114. It should be understood that there can be manyother aspects that may need to be stored in the data store, such as pageimage information and access rights information, which can be stored inany of the above listed mechanisms as appropriate or in additionalmechanisms in the data store 1110. The data store 1110 is operable,through logic associated therewith, to receive instructions from theapplication server 1108 and obtain, update or otherwise process data inresponse thereto. In one example, a user might submit a search requestfor a certain type of item. In this case, the data store might accessthe user information to verify the identity of the user and can accessthe catalog detail information to obtain information about items of thattype. The information can then be returned to the user, such as in aresults listing on a Web page that the user is able to view via abrowser on the user device 1102. Information for a particular item ofinterest can be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser.

Each server typically will include an operating system that providesexecutable program instructions for the general administration andoperation of that server and typically will include computer-readablemedium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of theserver, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitableimplementations for the operating system and general functionality ofthe servers are known or commercially available and are readilyimplemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly inlight of the disclosure herein.

The environment in one embodiment is a distributed computing environmentutilizing several computer systems and components that areinterconnected via communication links, using one or more computernetworks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operate equallywell in a system having fewer or a greater number of components than areillustrated in FIG. 11. Thus, the depiction of the system 1100 in FIG.11 should be taken as being illustrative in nature and not limiting tothe scope of the disclosure.

The various embodiments can be further implemented in a wide variety ofoperating environments, which in some cases can include one or more usercomputers or computing devices which can be used to operate any of anumber of applications. User or client devices can include any of anumber of general purpose personal computers, such as desktop or laptopcomputers running a standard operating system, as well as cellular,wireless and handheld devices running mobile software and capable ofsupporting a number of networking and messaging protocols. Such a systemcan also include a number of workstations running any of a variety ofcommercially-available operating systems and other known applicationsfor purposes such as development and database management. These devicescan also include other electronic devices, such as dummy terminals,thin-clients, gaming systems and other devices capable of communicatingvia a network.

Most embodiments utilize at least one network that would be familiar tothose skilled in the art for supporting communications using any of avariety of commercially-available protocols, such as TCP/IP, OSI, FTP,UPnP, NFS, CIFS and AppleTalk. The network can be, for example, a localarea network, a wide-area network, a virtual private network, theInternet, an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network,an infrared network, a wireless network and any combination thereof.

In embodiments utilizing a Web server, the Web server can run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTPservers, CGI servers, data servers, Java servers and businessapplication servers. The server(s) may also be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response requests from user devices, such as byexecuting one or more Web applications that may be implemented as one ormore scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava®, C, C# or C++ or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python orTCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) may also includedatabase servers, including without limitation those commerciallyavailable from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase® and IBM®.

The environment can include a variety of data stores and other memoryand storage media as discussed above. These can reside in a variety oflocations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) oneor more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computersacross the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the informationmay reside in a storage-area network (SAN) familiar to those skilled inthe art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functionsattributed to the computers, servers or other network devices may bestored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includescomputerized devices, each such device can include hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, forexample, at least one central processing unit (CPU), at least one inputdevice (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touch-sensitive displayelement or keypad) and at least one output device (e.g., a displaydevice, printer or speaker). Such a system may also include one or morestorage devices, such as disk drives, optical storage devices andsolid-state storage devices such as random access memory (RAM) orread-only memory (ROM), as well as removable media devices, memorycards, flash cards, etc.

Such devices can also include a computer-readable storage media reader,a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless orwired), an infrared communication device) and working memory asdescribed above. The computer-readable storage media reader can beconnected with, or configured to receive, a computer-readable storagemedium representing remote, local, fixed and/or removable storagedevices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanentlycontaining, storing, transmitting and retrieving computer-readableinformation. The system and various devices also typically will includea number of software applications, modules, services or other elementslocated within at least one working memory device, including anoperating system and application programs such as a client applicationor Web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments mayhave numerous variations from that described above. For example,customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements mightbe implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, suchas applets) or both. Further, connection to other computing devices suchas network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer readable media for containing code, orportions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as but notlimited to volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memoryor other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) orother optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices or any other medium which canbe used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by asystem device. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, aperson of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and/ormethods to implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing device, comprising: a processor; acamera, the camera having a field of view; a display element; and memoryincluding instructions that, when executed by the processor, enable thecomputing device to: capture image information by the camera, the imageinformation including a representation of text within a field of view ofthe camera, the image information being displayed on a display elementof the computing device; determine the representation of text isassociated with a business entity; determine a geospatial location ofthe computing device; determine a related business entity, the relatedbusiness entity offering at least one of a product or a service similarto the business entity; and provide location information for the relatedbusiness entity relative to the geospatial location of the computingdevice.
 2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the text is at leastone of a phone number, a uniform resource locator (URL), an address, aname of a business entity.
 3. The computing device of claim 1, whereinthe instructions when executed further enable the computing device to:display a link, within a display bar, to view the related businessentity; and receive a selection of the link from a user of the computingdevice.
 4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructionswhen executed further enable the computing device to: display a mapview, the map view including the geospatial location of the computingdevice and the location information for the related business entity. 5.The computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executedfurther enable the computing device to: determine a confidence scoreindicating a level of confidence that the representation of text isassociated with the business entity is above a threshold.
 6. Thecomputing device of claim 1, wherein determining the related businessentity is based at least in part on the geospatial location of thecomputing device, the related business entity being within a thresholddistance of the geospatial location of the computing device.
 7. Thecomputing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executedfurther enable the computing device to: analyze at least one data sourceto determine the business entity associated with the representation oftext; and display, in a graphical overlay, information associated withthe business entity.
 8. A method, comprising: capturing imageinformation by the camera, the image information including arepresentation of text within a field of view of the camera, the imageinformation being displayed on a display element of the computingdevice; determining the representation of text is associated with abusiness entity; determining a geospatial location of the computingdevice; determining a related business entity, the related businessentity offering at least one of a product or a service similar to thebusiness entity; and providing location information for the relatedbusiness entity relative to the geospatial location of the computingdevice.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the text is at least one of aphone number, a uniform resource locator (URL), an address, a name of abusiness entity.
 10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:displaying a link, within a display bar, to view the related businessentity; and receiving a selection of the link from a user of thecomputing device.
 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:displaying a map view, the map view including the geospatial location ofthe computing device and the location information for the relatedbusiness entity.
 12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:determining a confidence score indicating a level of confidence that therepresentation of text is associated with the business entity is above athreshold.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the relatedbusiness entity is based at least in part on the geospatial location ofthe computing device, the related business entity being within athreshold distance of the geospatial location of the computing device.14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: analyzing at least onedata source to determine the business entity associated with therepresentation of text; and displaying, in a graphical overlay,information associated with the business entity.
 15. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, whenexecuted by at least one processor, cause a computing device to: captureimage information by the camera, the image information including arepresentation of text within a field of view of the camera, the imageinformation being displayed on a display element of the computingdevice; determine the representation of text is associated with abusiness entity; determine a geospatial location of the computingdevice; determine a related business entity, the related business entityoffering at least one of a product or a service similar to the businessentity; and provide location information for the related business entityrelative to the geospatial location of the computing device.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thetext is at least one of a phone number, a uniform resource locator(URL), an address, a name of a business entity.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructionsthat, when executed by at the least one processor, enable the computingdevice to: display a link, within a display bar, to view the relatedbusiness entity; and receive a selection of the link from a user of thecomputing device.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the instructions that, when executed by atthe least one processor, enable the computing device to: display a mapview, the map view including the geospatial location of the computingdevice and the location information for the related business entity. 19.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, whereinthe instructions that, when executed by at the least one processor,enable the computing device to: determine a confidence score indicatinga level of confidence that the representation of text is associated withthe business entity is above a threshold.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein determining therelated business entity is based at least in part on the geospatiallocation of the computing device, the related business entity beingwithin a threshold distance of the geospatial location of the computingdevice.